voting rights • electoral system design • campaigns and elections

3/17/16 SLO to explore publicly financed elections

By JONO KINKADE After a blunt conversation about the merits and misgivings of a proposed public financing election program, the San Luis Obispo City Council cast a tenuous vote to move forward with developing a proposal. (read more on our proposal in New Times)

welcome

I am a political scientist active in the electoral reform movement. This site serves as a repository for my professional and personal work.

My chapter “Diagnosing Electoral Integrity” in Electoral Integrity in America analyzes multiple indices of electoral integrity developed for the purpose of comparing U.S. states with themselves and with other nation-states. I demonstrate that while there is some correlation between some elements of integrity metrics (the voting process and integrity of redistricting practices, for example), we need more theoretical clarity and measurement accuracy to diagnose the quality of democracy in the United States.

Gerrymandering in America considers the political and constitutional consequences of Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004), where the Supreme Court held that partisan gerrymandering challenges could no longer be adjudicated by the courts. Through a rigorous scientific analysis of US House district maps, the authors argue that partisan bias increased dramatically in the 2010 redistricting round after the Vieth decision, both at the national and state level. From a constitutional perspective, unrestrained partisan gerrymandering poses a critical threat to a central pillar of
American democracy, popular sovereignty. State legislatures now effectively determine the political composition of the US House. The book answers the Court's challenge to find a new standard for gerrymandering that is both constitutionally grounded and legally manageable. It argues that the scientifically rigorous partisan symmetry measure is an appropriate legal standard for partisan gerrymandering, as it logically implies the constitutional right to individual equality and can be practically applied.